George III

George III (1738–1820) was King of Great Britain and Ireland and Elector of Hanover from 1760 to 1820. He had recurring mental health issues from 1788 which resulted in him becoming a permanent invalid and the country becoming a Regency under his son the Prince of Wales, who succeeded him as George IV in 1820. George III's reign is noted for the American Revolution; the expansion of the British Empire into Africa, Oceania, India and other parts of Asia; the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution which would make Britain an economic powerhouse; and the Napoleonic Wars.

Life

George was born in London as Prince George William Frederick, the first son of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales (1707–1751) and his wife, Augusta of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1719–1772). He was the grandson of King George II. His education suffered at first from the quarrels between his father and grandfather; and from the folly of his ignorant and over-protective mother. His tutors were political appointees and usually of little ability, while the small group gathered around his mother thought very highly of Henry Bolingbroke's The Idea of a Patriot King and urged young George to follow its precepts.

King

Following Bolingbroke's advice when he succeeded his grandfather as King in 1760, George tried to rule through ministers of his own choosing. In 1761, he brought about the resignations of the rather domineering William Pitt the Elder and of the Duke of Newcastle, who had long controlled the bribery that held Whig majorities together. George was able to do this partly because he took control of the Crown patronage and so could build up a party devoted to his wishes, and partly because the Whig oligarchy was divided into bitterly opposed factions that could be played off against each other. Thus the King recovered some of the constitutional authority that had been lost by George I and George II since 1714. From 1760 to 1780, he dismissed and appointed ministers at his pleasure and dictated their general policy.

American Revolution

George controlled the policies to reassert imperial control over the restive colonies that caused the American Revolution in 1775; most Britons supported the King, though a vocal minority warned that the colonists had strong claims to the rights of Englishmen. The war became a personal issue for George, fuelled by his growing belief that British leniency would be taken as weakness by the Americans. The King also sincerely believed he was defending Britain's constitution against usurpers, rather than opposing patriots fighting for their natural rights.

Americans were slow to appreciate that the King was not their ally; they had hailed him in 1766 as the "Patriot King" when the Stamp Act was repealed by the Rockingham ministry, unaware he had privately opposed its lifting. The King was delighted by the series of tough Acts of Parliament passed in 1774. Collectively known as the "Coercive Acts", these were the immediate cause of revolt. He pressed for the royal proclamation of August 1775 that announced that his American subjects were "engaged in open and avowed rebellion".

During the war, the King refused to compromise and selected inept ministers who caused disaster after disaster, including the formation of a powerful coalition in support of the Americans, the loss of traditional British allies, and the surrender of two main armies at the Battle of Saratoga (1777) and the Battle of Yorktown (1781). George wanted to send reinforcements but he lost control of Parliament and his Prime Minister Lord North was forced to resign. Negotiations that led to the Treaty of Paris (1783) proved highly favourable to the Americans.

A constitutional crisis erupted in 1783–1784 when the King dismissed the coalition government of Charles James Fox and Lord North. He supplanted it with one led by William Pitt the Younger. Pitt was faced by a hostile majority in Parliament but, within months, he had stabilised his position. Many historians argue that Pitt's success was inevitable given the decisive importance of monarchical power in British politics during the period. Paul Kelly (1981) disputes this view, maintaining that the King gambled on Pitt and that both would have failed but for a run of good fortune. Although the King exercised considerable influence in politics from 1783 onward, the emergence of the younger Pitt, who had secured his majority in 1784 through royal support, meant that the King's power of interference was curtailed. Yet, in 1801, the King blocked Catholic emancipation and, in 1804, refused to approve Charles James Fox as a minister.

Insanity

George's first serious mental health attack, in October 1788, led to a bitter political struggle over the Regency because the Prince of Wales, the obvious Regent, opposed both his father and Pitt. The King recovered in March 1789, but his symptoms recurred in 1801, 1804, and 1810. From 1811, it became a permanent condition. In 1808, he also became totally blind. Modern medicine suggests that his illness stemmed from porphyria, a rare metabolic disease that is genetic and produces temporary mental disability in the form of delirium. George died on 29 January 1820.

Image and memory

George's desire to identify the monarchy with national achievement and visible splendor was evident from the start of his reign. Individual and organised patriotism was increasing, and the King represented reassuring stability in the midst of national flux and humiliation following Britain's declining fortunes and eventual defeat in the War of American Independence. After 1780, royal resurgence was also part of the conservative reaction to the French Revolution. Newspapers were important to royal propaganda and display, as was civic pride, a growth in the number of voluntary organisations, increased rapport between a variety of religious interests and royalty, and the wartime context of much of George III's reign. He accustomed his subjects to expect a glamorous show from their King amid a steady background of domestic probity. Concurrently, there was a decline in the Crown's capacity for positive political power. The monarch began to be viewed as politically neutral while political and social radicals began to abandon the realm of conventional, xenophobic patriotism, leaving the latter to the state authorities and the monarch.

Rejecting high society in London and the lavish luxuries of court life, King George and his consort Queen Charlotte (1744–1818) preferred to live away from London in what Charlotte referred to as their "sweet retreat," allowing them to focus on family and domestic life. This practice helped to revive the reputation and popularity of the monarchy and marked the beginning of the transition to the modern form of the British court. George was the punctual, abstemious, uxorious, musical Hanoverian who liked clocks, disliked gambling and worried about his country's economy, tried to protect his empire, and worried about his eldest son's astronomical debts. Admirers of the sober and prudish King called attention to the loving husband, devoted (albeit domineering) father, connoisseur of fine art, and the patron of literature. George had an active interest in farming and was often nicknamed "Farmer George".

In 1819, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley had already written his epitaph: "An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying King". However, recent historians portray a shrewd, cultivated, and well-meaning individual who was widely read and well informed about English history and constitutional law. Contrary to earlier interpretations, recent scholars say he did not bend constitutional rules nor did he pursue policies leading to the subversion of British and colonial liberties. The monarchy continued to function under George III very much in the same way as under his grandfather, George II.

King of Great Britain and Ireland

preceded by
George II

dates
1760–1820

succeeded by
George IV